Keep your eyes on Arizona if you have a stake in public lands.

Reports emerged last week that President Obama is close to declaring the Grand Canyon a highly protected national monument, putting 1.7 million acres of watershed off limits to uranium mining.

Arizona’s two Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture not to allow it, citing access, management and forest-thinning concerns.

Separately, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, is proffering legislation to create the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument to achieve the same protections. The bill isn’t likely to pass, if Republicans oppose it, given their majority in Congress.

In case you missed it, Billie Stanton Anleu had an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette recently about Colorado Springs conservationists and politicians who sent a letter to President Obama asking him to support the monument.

“We are blessed with beautiful places across the western states, but the Grand Canyon is a special American icon,” says the letter endorsed by 50 Colorado Springs-area leaders. “Its scenic vistas are unparalleled; it is home to wildlife from big-horned sheep to the endangered California condor; it is a great place for hiking, camping and whitewater rafting.”

Supporters say the designatioin will preserve the Colorado River and protect ancient burial grounds and archaeological sites.

Public lands supporters should move fast. If President-elect Trump listens to one of his top environmental advisers, a whole new way of thinking might be coming to national monuments, future and existing.

A recent recommendation to Congress titled “Free to Prosper” by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute calls for drastic changes:

That states rights approach to public lands comes from a close Trump adviser. Myron Ebell, a graduate of Colorado College and the director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Ebell is heading the Trump transition team on environmental issues, as I blogged last week.

Scott Braden, the public lands advocate for Conservation Colorado, told me he was shocked by recommendation.

“So, in Colorado, unless the legislature intervened, Dinosaur, Browns Canyon and other popular and cherished national monuments would be slated for repeal, opening these national treasures up to mining, drilling and development,” he surmised.